Utilities are suffering from information overload. The volume of data and new processes required to be created has exploded in the past decade, driven by data streams as technologies deployed across every area of their operations and customers. That data was intended to help utilities make faster, better decisions and drive efficiencies, but the sheer volume of it is overwhelming to most organizations, often creating more problems than it solves.
The answer isn’t to turn back the clock. Digital technologies that are driving these massive data streams are delivering significant operational benefits to utilities. And with the proliferation of AI, this data also contains untapped insights that can drive even more efficiencies and better decision making. Rather than going backwards what utilities need is a data management strategy that transforms data from a burden into a true business asset — an asset that can help them address some of the biggest business challenges they face. From assets to operations, and from clean energy to customer satisfaction, an effective data strategy provides significant value across your organization:
• Enhanced Operational Efficiency — Utilities can streamline operations, optimize resource allocation and reduce waste by integrating and rectifying data from various sources and applying advanced analytics. This leads to cost savings and improves overall performance.
• Improved Grid Reliability and Resilience — Business intelligence insights enable utilities to better predict and prevent outages, optimize maintenance schedules and respond quickly to disruptions. This enhances grid reliability and customer satisfaction.
• Risk Mitigation and Compliance — A robust data management strategy helps utilities identify and mitigate potential risks more effectively while streamlining regulatory compliance and reporting processes.
• Innovation and New Revenue Streams — With a solid data foundation, utilities can develop and implement innovative products and services more efficiently, such as new demand flexibility programs or reliability improvement initiatives, creating new revenue opportunities.
• Sustainability and Increasing Load Growth — Effective data management is crucial for successfully modeling and interconnecting new generation including renewable energy sources, managing distributed energy resources and achieving sustainability goals.
• Improved Asset Management — Data-driven insights from more accurate data enable utilities to optimize asset lifecycles, predict maintenance needs and prioritize infrastructure investments more effectively.
• Superior Forecasting and Planning — With better data management, utilities can improve their load forecasting accuracy, enabling more efficient resource and reliability planning and reducing the risk of over- or under-investment in infrastructure.
• Enhanced Customer Experience — By leveraging customer data effectively, utilities can provide more personalized services, improve communication and offer valuable insights to help customers manage their energy consumption.
• Workforce Support — A data-driven enterprise promotes higher levels of thinking in the digital workforce. It enables staff to focus on priority tasks by enabling the automation of repetitive computing functions.
Four Critical Steps to Building an Effective Data Strategy
To harness the full potential of data as a business asset, utilities must develop and implement a comprehensive data management strategy. While this may seem obvious, it is often overlooked by many organizations. Indeed, one study reports that nearly half (46%) of organizations don’t use data to gain insights or make decisions because 72% don’t consider their data a strategic asset.
A well-executed data management strategy can drive growth and innovation. As data plays an increasingly critical role in business success, organizations prioritizing effective data management will be better positioned to thrive in the competitive landscape. But the key is knowing how to begin. Built on decades of experience supporting clients with their systems and data needs, TRC recommends utilities take these five steps to build a more effective data strategy:
1. Assess Current Data Landscape and Define Objectives
The first step in developing a robust data strategy is to thoroughly assess the current state of your utility’s data management practices. This involves:
• Identifying the critical data needed to ensure safety and reliability and determining high priority risks associated with the current state
• Identifying all associated existing data sources, systems and processes
• Evaluating current data quality, accessibility and integration challenges
• Identifying any new technologies or systems integration supporting critical systems and processes that require accurate data
• Assessing current analytical capabilities and tools to develop a desired state
• Developing a data strategic plan and roadmap to reach desired state
• Identifying key stakeholders and their data needs
Simultaneously, it’s crucial to define clear objectives that align with overall business goals. These might include improving operational efficiency and resiliency, enhancing customer satisfaction, promoting safety or accelerating the integration of renewable energy sources.
2. Develop a Data Governance Framework
Establishing a strong data governance framework is essential for ensuring data quality, security and compliance. This step involves:
• Defining roles and responsibilities at every level across the organization
• Establishing data quality standards and processes
• Implementing data security and privacy protocols
• Creating policies for data access, sharing and retention
• Developing a data catalog to improve discoverability and understanding of available data assets
A well-designed governance framework provides the foundation for all other data management initiatives and helps build trust in the data throughout the organization.
3. Implement a Modern Data Architecture
To support the increasing volume and complexity of utility data, it’s crucial to implement a modern, scalable data architecture. This typically involves:
• Adopting cloud-native technologies for data storage and processing
• Implementing data integration and ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools to consolidate data from disparate sources
• Deploying a strategy for data storage to centralize collection and enable advanced analytics
• Implementing internal methods to assess and estimate data accuracies, and mapping critical businesses processes that require improvement
• Ensuring the secure interoperability between IT and OT (Operational Technology) systems
4. Foster a Data-Driven Culture
Finally, utilities must foster a data-driven culture throughout their organization to capitalize on the benefits of a comprehensive data strategy. This involves:
• Providing training to employees at all levels, starting with leadership
• Encouraging data-driven decision-making across departments
• Celebrating and sharing success stories of data-driven initiatives
• Establishing processes that support root cause analysis of safety and reliability incidences involving data management issues
• Continuously evaluating and refining data management practices based on feedback and results
With a solid data foundation, built on the above steps, utilities can successfully invest in innovative technologies that provide a myriad of benefits. For example, they can implement advanced analytics and visualization tools to extract meaningful insights from their data. This includes implementing business intelligence (BI) and data visualization platforms, developing predictive and prescriptive analytics capabilities, and exploring AI and ML applications for specific use cases (e.g., outage prediction, load forecasting). Implementing these four steps requires a significant commitment of resources and a long-term perspective. However, the benefits of a well-executed data strategy far outweigh the initial investment, positioning utilities to thrive in an increasingly complex and data-driven energy landscape.
About the Authors:
Joe Tellez is the Sr. Director of Digital Cloud Strategy & Business Development at TRC, a global professional services firm providing integrated strategy, consulting, engineering and applied technologies in support of the energy transition. In this role, he provides vision for both short-term and long-term strategies to help utilities improve performance through the effective use of technology. He brings over 25 years of industry experience serving in senior leadership roles in organizations including UiPath, Tacoma Power, Utility Integration Solutions/Alstom Grid, and Sempra Utilities (San Diego Gas & Electric / Southern California Gas Co.). Joe serves on the UW-Tacoma School of Engineering & Technology Advisory Board, and he served as the Executive in Residence at University of Colorado’s Global Energy Management Program. He obtained a B.S. in industrial and systems engineering and an M.S. in systems architecture & engineering from University of Southern California.
Erik Takayesu is an independent advisor for the utility industry, and the former Senior Vice President of Asset Strategy & Planning at Southern California Edison (SCE). At SCE he led various organizations including electric system planning and modernization, transmission and substation construction and maintenance, grid operations, and emerging technologies. His experience led to key appointments, notably serving on the Board of Directors for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), and recently completing his term on Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee. Takayesu also serves on technical advisory boards at various companies including the senior advisor team at TRC.
The answer isn’t to turn back the clock. Digital technologies that are driving these massive data streams are delivering significant operational benefits to utilities. And with the proliferation of AI, this data also contains untapped insights that can drive even more efficiencies and better decision making. Rather than going backwards what utilities need is a data management strategy that transforms data from a burden into a true business asset — an asset that can help them address some of the biggest business challenges they face. From assets to operations, and from clean energy to customer satisfaction, an effective data strategy provides significant value across your organization:
• Enhanced Operational Efficiency — Utilities can streamline operations, optimize resource allocation and reduce waste by integrating and rectifying data from various sources and applying advanced analytics. This leads to cost savings and improves overall performance.
• Improved Grid Reliability and Resilience — Business intelligence insights enable utilities to better predict and prevent outages, optimize maintenance schedules and respond quickly to disruptions. This enhances grid reliability and customer satisfaction.
• Risk Mitigation and Compliance — A robust data management strategy helps utilities identify and mitigate potential risks more effectively while streamlining regulatory compliance and reporting processes.
• Innovation and New Revenue Streams — With a solid data foundation, utilities can develop and implement innovative products and services more efficiently, such as new demand flexibility programs or reliability improvement initiatives, creating new revenue opportunities.
• Sustainability and Increasing Load Growth — Effective data management is crucial for successfully modeling and interconnecting new generation including renewable energy sources, managing distributed energy resources and achieving sustainability goals.
• Improved Asset Management — Data-driven insights from more accurate data enable utilities to optimize asset lifecycles, predict maintenance needs and prioritize infrastructure investments more effectively.
• Superior Forecasting and Planning — With better data management, utilities can improve their load forecasting accuracy, enabling more efficient resource and reliability planning and reducing the risk of over- or under-investment in infrastructure.
• Enhanced Customer Experience — By leveraging customer data effectively, utilities can provide more personalized services, improve communication and offer valuable insights to help customers manage their energy consumption.
• Workforce Support — A data-driven enterprise promotes higher levels of thinking in the digital workforce. It enables staff to focus on priority tasks by enabling the automation of repetitive computing functions.
Four Critical Steps to Building an Effective Data Strategy
To harness the full potential of data as a business asset, utilities must develop and implement a comprehensive data management strategy. While this may seem obvious, it is often overlooked by many organizations. Indeed, one study reports that nearly half (46%) of organizations don’t use data to gain insights or make decisions because 72% don’t consider their data a strategic asset.
A well-executed data management strategy can drive growth and innovation. As data plays an increasingly critical role in business success, organizations prioritizing effective data management will be better positioned to thrive in the competitive landscape. But the key is knowing how to begin. Built on decades of experience supporting clients with their systems and data needs, TRC recommends utilities take these five steps to build a more effective data strategy:
1. Assess Current Data Landscape and Define Objectives
The first step in developing a robust data strategy is to thoroughly assess the current state of your utility’s data management practices. This involves:
• Identifying the critical data needed to ensure safety and reliability and determining high priority risks associated with the current state
• Identifying all associated existing data sources, systems and processes
• Evaluating current data quality, accessibility and integration challenges
• Identifying any new technologies or systems integration supporting critical systems and processes that require accurate data
• Assessing current analytical capabilities and tools to develop a desired state
• Developing a data strategic plan and roadmap to reach desired state
• Identifying key stakeholders and their data needs
Simultaneously, it’s crucial to define clear objectives that align with overall business goals. These might include improving operational efficiency and resiliency, enhancing customer satisfaction, promoting safety or accelerating the integration of renewable energy sources.
2. Develop a Data Governance Framework
Establishing a strong data governance framework is essential for ensuring data quality, security and compliance. This step involves:
• Defining roles and responsibilities at every level across the organization
• Establishing data quality standards and processes
• Implementing data security and privacy protocols
• Creating policies for data access, sharing and retention
• Developing a data catalog to improve discoverability and understanding of available data assets
A well-designed governance framework provides the foundation for all other data management initiatives and helps build trust in the data throughout the organization.
3. Implement a Modern Data Architecture
To support the increasing volume and complexity of utility data, it’s crucial to implement a modern, scalable data architecture. This typically involves:
• Adopting cloud-native technologies for data storage and processing
• Implementing data integration and ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools to consolidate data from disparate sources
• Deploying a strategy for data storage to centralize collection and enable advanced analytics
• Implementing internal methods to assess and estimate data accuracies, and mapping critical businesses processes that require improvement
• Ensuring the secure interoperability between IT and OT (Operational Technology) systems
4. Foster a Data-Driven Culture
Finally, utilities must foster a data-driven culture throughout their organization to capitalize on the benefits of a comprehensive data strategy. This involves:
• Providing training to employees at all levels, starting with leadership
• Encouraging data-driven decision-making across departments
• Celebrating and sharing success stories of data-driven initiatives
• Establishing processes that support root cause analysis of safety and reliability incidences involving data management issues
• Continuously evaluating and refining data management practices based on feedback and results
With a solid data foundation, built on the above steps, utilities can successfully invest in innovative technologies that provide a myriad of benefits. For example, they can implement advanced analytics and visualization tools to extract meaningful insights from their data. This includes implementing business intelligence (BI) and data visualization platforms, developing predictive and prescriptive analytics capabilities, and exploring AI and ML applications for specific use cases (e.g., outage prediction, load forecasting). Implementing these four steps requires a significant commitment of resources and a long-term perspective. However, the benefits of a well-executed data strategy far outweigh the initial investment, positioning utilities to thrive in an increasingly complex and data-driven energy landscape.
About the Authors:
Joe Tellez is the Sr. Director of Digital Cloud Strategy & Business Development at TRC, a global professional services firm providing integrated strategy, consulting, engineering and applied technologies in support of the energy transition. In this role, he provides vision for both short-term and long-term strategies to help utilities improve performance through the effective use of technology. He brings over 25 years of industry experience serving in senior leadership roles in organizations including UiPath, Tacoma Power, Utility Integration Solutions/Alstom Grid, and Sempra Utilities (San Diego Gas & Electric / Southern California Gas Co.). Joe serves on the UW-Tacoma School of Engineering & Technology Advisory Board, and he served as the Executive in Residence at University of Colorado’s Global Energy Management Program. He obtained a B.S. in industrial and systems engineering and an M.S. in systems architecture & engineering from University of Southern California.
Erik Takayesu is an independent advisor for the utility industry, and the former Senior Vice President of Asset Strategy & Planning at Southern California Edison (SCE). At SCE he led various organizations including electric system planning and modernization, transmission and substation construction and maintenance, grid operations, and emerging technologies. His experience led to key appointments, notably serving on the Board of Directors for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), and recently completing his term on Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee. Takayesu also serves on technical advisory boards at various companies including the senior advisor team at TRC.
